LIVE PHOTOS & REVIEW: Alex Goot Live in Montreal

Love Taylor Swift, but too broke to see her in concert? Check. Tired of the same old songs and looking for some new spins to them? Check. Want to discover some new music or just down to have fun? Check and check. Then, why not spend a night with famous YouTuber Alex Goot and his friends? At least, that’s what I did.

In less than a year’s time, Goot finally made his way back to Montreal with a bunch of friends (Sam Tsui and Kurt Schneider, King the Kid and Against the Current) to kick-start his summer tour. Also joining the Montreal line up were locals Emborne Drive and Perfect Sideline.

The South Shore quartet, Emborne Drive, opened up the show with some of their own upbeat tunes. Though the stage was filled with their energy, most of the crowd didn’t really seem into it yet. However, with a voice similar to Simple Plan’s Pierre Bouvier’s, the frontman of the band was still able to charm the audience with a rendition of Ed Sheeran’s “The A-Team”. After that, one fan even asked him to take off his pants!

Next to take over was Perfect Sideline. Having a larger fan base than the first local band, the crowd was much more animated. With the lead singer complimenting and thanking fans over and over again, the volume of the room got louder and louder. They managed to set up the energy level for the night after they got the audience to sing along to their mash-up of “22”, “Payphone” and “Get Lucky”.

King the Kid then walked on to a lamp-lit decorated stage. Grabbing many girls’ attention with their “boy band”-like image, they started off their set with playing one of their originals, “Marionette”. However, they REALLY won the audience’s heart when Ricky Ficarelli picked up his acoustic guitar and began strumming the chords to the Goo Goo Dolls’s famous hit, “Iris”. The whole venue sang and swayed along full heartedly with David Micahel Frank, which brought smiles to all three members’ faces. Next, they revealed their pop punk side by playing a medley of “Ocean Avenue”(Yellowcard), “I’d Do Anything”(Simple Plan) and “The Rock Show” (Blink-182). Promising a little acoustic treat after the show, they ended their act on a high note and played their most popular original, “We Are the Ones”.

Following the Oregon trio, Against the Current presented themselves and performed an original of theirs¸ “Closer, Faster”. Fans sang along with Chrissy Costanza while she danced around stage. Although it seemed like spectators were HUGE fans at first, not many people knew the words to the rest of their songs. Despite Costanza’s efforts to pump up the energy level during a cover of Michelle Branch’s “Everywhere”, the crowd still remained stagnant. She and her band carried on with a new and upbeat song, entitled “Guessing”. Not gaining as much support as their predecessors, the New York natives finished off with a new hit, “Thinking”.

However, the atmosphere shifted right away when dynamic duo Sam Tsui and Kurt Schneider stepped on stage. “Make It Up” began to play and fangirls (and boys) cheered loudly when Tsui sang and danced from one of the stage to the other. Performing not one, but two medleys, they succeeded in engaging the crowd and getting them to belt out the words to songs like “Some Nights”, “That’s What Makes You Beautiful”and “Gangnam Style”. The most memorable part of their set was when they played an unplugged guitar version of “Me Without You”. With the two sitting on the edge of the stage, fans gathered around them and sang along as softly as possible to not overpower the YouTuber’s vocals. Seeing this and realizing what a beautiful moment this was, Schneider began to tear up while Tsui grinned on. What I enjoyed the most from this act was that they were able to keep their audience hooked throughout their performance.

Finally, after having waited for so long, it was time for the star of the night. When the first few familiar chords of “Living Addiction” were played, fans went wild. Dressed in a simple pair of jeans a Transformer t-shirt, Goot walked on stage to greet the many enthusiastic faces. Even though he was the main act of the show, his performance was less energetic and crowd-interactive compared to Tsui and Schneider’s. However, that didn’t stop the audience from busting out the words to his originals and from singing along to covers like “1000 Miles” and “How To Save a Life”. He “ended” the night with a very upbeat mash-up of his debut single “Lightning”, “Teenage Dream”, “Beauty and a Beat” and “With or Without You”, which obviously wasn’t enough. The “Goot Troop” shouted for an encore and there he was on stage again, singing one last cover of The Script’s “Breakeven”.

All in all, this was a great night filled with very “Goot” music and some “Tsui” moments.